Retaining walls are used in a wide variety of civil engineering and landscaping applications, for example to support slopes and embankments for highways and railways, support noise barriers, etc. Retaining walls are commonly made having a supporting face structure made of interconnecting blocks with soil or other fill placed and compacted in back of the wall, and with sheets of geogrid laid in the fill at various levels, extending back from the wall. The geogrid sheets, which stabilize the backfill, are often attached to the interlocking blocks.
It is known to build retaining walls of sandbags instead of interlocking blocks to hold the backfill. In the prior art, sandbags in retaining walls are not attached to each other, relying essentially on their mass to stabilize the wall. This limits the steepness and the height of retaining walls that can be build with sandbags. Sandbag retaining walls, in the prior art, are normally temporary, rather than permanent, structures.
Also, it is known to build retaining walls with blocks of various kinds. Such blocks, in the prior art, generally need to be made with interfitting parts or be affixed by concrete or the like in order to make a secure stable retaining wall.
Japanese Abstract JP-A06-322730 published Nov. 22, 1994 shows the use of a disc-like solid with a projection on both sides to prevent slippage between bags of ready-mix concrete in a retaining wall. However, such device can prevent slippage only between two vertically-adjacent bags. Japanese abstract JP-A-59-048525 published Mar. 19, 1984 shows the use of sand and soil bags provided integrally on the ends of water-permeable sheets which extend into fill in back of a vertical bank.